bribe me with a Bride

Jind(Haryana): With a skewed sex ratio of 861 females to 1,000 males due to decade of female foeticide and a high unemployment rate, it is not surprise that men in Haryana have asked the politicians to ‘bribe them with a Bride’.

Over 250 bachelors assembled in Jind on Wednesday, to protest against the government for being unable to provide employment and brides to them. “Our motto is clear Bahu do; vote lo (give a bride and take a vote),” says Chief of the Bachelors Union, Pawan Kunwara, who has changed his sur name to –Kunwara(bachelor), “being a bachelor is my only identity,” he explains.

On being asked why he choose the issue of unemployment and female foeticide he said that, “The two are not separate, I can’t get a wife because there are hardly any girls and if somehow there is a girl, chances are her father will refuse me because I don’t have a job. Hence to solve the problems of the Haryanavi youth, these two issues have to be solved together.”

Ahead of the Assembly elections on 13th Aug, the bachelors are demanding that political parties make promises of weddings and jobs instead of farm waivers. “The question is not about us being unmarried, it shows that educated men can’t find wives. No one will marry his daughter to an unemployed person. And instead of wavering off debt, we should provide new avenues of employment, so that no one has to take a loan.” But political parties have nothing more then a promised monthly allowance of Rs 3,000 for the educated unemployed.

Brainless sex preference and preference of a male child has made one of the most fertile lands of the country a matrimonial wasteland and presence of unemployment amongst the youth has added to the woes of the Bachelors. “The number of our unemployed bachelors would outnumber most countries’ armies, and still people think it is funny. It is high time we take a step to stop female foeticide and provide employment options to men,” Mr Kunwara added.

The sex ratio of 861 females to 1,000 males the absence of marriageable women has given boost to the crime of trafficking. In many villages of Haryana, wealthy men have to purchase brides from other states as there is a shortage of marriageable females, which is due to rampant Female foeticide.
(Eom)

cost of a small family- dont have daughters….

CHANDIGARH: “Earlier, families wanted at least one son. Now they want one son only!” says Dr. Sabu George who has been working in the field of female foeticide for over two decades. According to experts, selective elimination of unborn females in Punjab is not just the result of backward social attitude but years of marketing by doctors who promoted the idea of foeticide as sensible social investment. “Medical terrorism” Punjab has one of the lowest sex ratios in the world, from 875 per 1,000 births in 1991 to 798 in 2001. The sex ratio at last birth (NFH Survey-III) in Punjab is an abysmal 504, which means that 496 out of 1,000 families do not have more children if the first-born is male. Terming the practice of aborting a foetus after sex determination as “medical terrorism”, Dr. George said that while society has always been unkind to women, the sudden eruption in male births is entirely due to easy availability of technology and the shameless manner in which doctors market the procedure to the educated elite. “Educated females want small families and medical technology has made that convenient; eventually the concept of an ideal small family is built at the expense of dead female foetus,” he added. Advertisements Ultrasound machines meant for checking the growth of an unborn were dumped in India and doctors made a fortune by overplaying being son-less as social stigma. “Not long back, nursing homes in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi carried advertisements on how an expenditure of few thousands [at aborting a female] would eventually save many lakhs in the future,” Dr. George said. A recent study conducted by Patiala-based paediatric doctor Harshinder Kaur talks about how school girls in urban Punjab resent the idea of bearing a female child. “Close to 40 per cent stated that a female got proper attention and due respect in her in-laws’ house only if she bore a male child. Other reasons were increasing crimes against females, ill-treatment at home, and continuation of family name and support in old age.” Dr. Kaur, who has been working in the area of female foeticide in Punjab, added that only one-tenth of the girls knew that the gender of a child depended on the male partner, “Shamefully many thought not bearing a male child was some sort of a defect. The present education system seems too insufficient to enlighten them!” Even as the Punjab Government announced considerable improvement in the sex ratio (from 798 per 1,000 to 850 in nine years), experts question the reliability of the data. “The Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques [Regulation and Prevention of Misuse] Act, 1994, was enacted primarily to check sex-selective foeticide, but its conviction rate is not good enough to act as deterrent. The law has not been enforced, awareness is ineffective and the society doesn’t seem to care about the brutal murder of innumerable girls,” say“Earlier, families wanted at least one son. Now they want one son only!” says Dr. Sabu George who has been working in the field of female foeticide for over two decades. According to experts, selective elimination of unborn females in Punjab is not just the result of backward social attitude but years of marketing by doctors who promoted the idea of foeticide as sensible social investment. “Medical terrorism” Punjab has one of the lowest sex ratios in the world, from 875 per 1,000 births in 1991 to 798 in 2001. The sex ratio at last birth (NFH Survey-III) in Punjab is an abysmal 504, which means that 496 out of 1,000 families do not have more children if the first-born is male. Terming the practice of aborting a foetus after sex determination as “medical terrorism”, Dr. George said that while society has always been unkind to women, the sudden eruption in male births is entirely due to easy availability of technology and the shameless manner in which doctors market the procedure to the educated elite. “Educated females want small families and medical technology has made that convenient; eventually the concept of an ideal small family is built at the expense of dead female foetus,” he added. Advertisements Ultrasound machines meant for checking the growth of an unborn were dumped in India and doctors made a fortune by overplaying being son-less as social stigma. “Not long back, nursing homes in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi carried advertisements on how an expenditure of few thousands [at aborting a female] would eventually save many lakhs in the future,” Dr. George said. A recent study conducted by Patiala-based paediatric doctor Harshinder Kaur talks about how school girls in urban Punjab resent the idea of bearing a female child. “Close to 40 per cent stated that a female got proper attention and due respect in her in-laws’ house only if she bore a male child. Other reasons were increasing crimes against females, ill-treatment at home, and continuation of family name and support in old age.” Dr. Kaur, who has been working in the area of female foeticide in Punjab, added that only one-tenth of the girls knew that the gender of a child depended on the male partner, “Shamefully many thought not bearing a male child was some sort of a defect. The present education system seems too insufficient to enlighten them!” Even as the Punjab Government announced considerable improvement in the sex ratio (from 798 per 1,000 to 850 in nine years), experts question the reliability of the data. “The Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques [Regulation and Prevention of Misuse] Act, 1994, was enacted primarily to check sex-selective foeticide, but its conviction rate is not good enough to act as deterrent. The law has not been enforced, awareness is ineffective and the society doesn’t seem to care about the brutal murder of innumerable girls,” says Voluntary Health Association of Punjab director Manmohan Sharma. “Genocide” “The desire to have a single male child is high because more educated women have greater access to technology, they are more privileged and everybody knows which doctors are doing it in any town or village. Civil society organisations do not give it adequate priority in terms of stopping the crime, they still don’t see it as genocide,” says Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development professor Ashwini Nanda.s Voluntary Health Association of Punjab director Manmohan Sharma. “Genocide” “The desire to have a single male child is high because more educated women have greater access to technology, they are more privileged and everybody knows which doctors are doing it in any town or village. Civil society organisations do not give it adequate priority in terms of stopping the crime, they still don’t see it as genocide,” says Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development professor Ashwini Nanda.

not all girls get to live in Punjab…

“She was thrown in the garbage dump outside the village for dogs that ate her. Her only fault — she was the fourth girl born in a poor family,” said Harshinder Kaur, paediatric doctor here, recalling the first time she witnessed discrimination against female infants in Punjab’s rural side.

“Over a decade ago, I couldn’t save that infant and ever since I try to speak for the girls who never lived,” said Dr. Kaur, who has been awarded by numerous governments across the globe for her work in eradicating the evil.

Rampant female foeticide, the shameful act of selectively aborting the female foetus due to non-preference, continues to push the sex ratio of Punjab against females; unfortunately, the evil is more prevalent among the educated, the rich and the urban bred.

The 2006 National Family Health Survey shows that prosperity does little to curb the evil as Punjab’s overall sex ratio at birth (considered a more accurate indicator of female foeticide) was 776 against 793 in 2001. In urban areas, it goes further down to 761:1,000. “The data clearly contradicts the belief that people don’t want daughters only due to the expense of dowry and marriage, the practice is more popular amongst the prosperous urban population who commit the crime to avoid perceived social disgrace of not having a son and escaping property division,” said Parveen Singhal, retired professor, who continues to work on the issue.

Education too has failed in curbing the practice as children born to mothers having Class 10 or higher education had a significantly lower sex ratio at 683:1,000 than illiterate mothers at 869:1,000. “My study on girl students of higher secondary schools in urban areas revealed that 78.8 per cent did not want to give birth to a girl child. I was shocked to find that educated girls from urban areas can discriminate against their own kind. They cited the deplorable condition of their mothers and restriction imposed on girls from family as the main reason,” said Dr. Kaur, adding that until the social status of women changed, the mindset would continue.

Chandigarh, the city with the highest standards of living in the country, has a sex ratio of 777:1,000 and Fatehgarh Sahib district has the lowest ratio of 754:1,000.

Examining the sex ratios at birth of second child makes it evident that son preference is affecting family-building strategies. The sex ratio of last births (number of females born per 1,000 males when the first child is a female ) ranges from a low of 504 in Punjab, to 540 in Haryana, and 572 in Himachal Pradesh indicating a regional spread. However, Punjab’s sex ratio of the second child when the first child is a male, goes up to a healthy 1,003:1,000, in other words, after one son, families are less inclined to go in for sex determination tests and foeticide.

Kamaljeet Gill, Professor of Economics at Punjabi University, said: “Even today, birth of a girl child is viewed as a bad investment for future but the poor still find the cost of raising a child to be nominal with respect to the income that the child might generate and also they cannot afford the cost of tests and abortion. The reform needs to begin with the prosperous, educated class which abort a female child due to their narrow patriarchal view, where sons are considered to be the only hope of old age and even after life.”

“Sanitary option”

“Unchecked technology combined with affordability has made the practice a norm, and high and middle-income groups have completely shifted to female foeticide as a more ‘sanitary option’ and female infanticide too is practised more in the form of abandoning few-days-old infants in bushes, public toilets, parks or garbage bins but the aim has not changed, no one wants to be son-less,” said Dr. Kaur.

“Statutory laws such as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and The Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act are not enforced strictly and the few doctors that are convicted soon open their clinics. With such ineffective implementation of laws government agencies, religious leaders, politicians or non-governmental organisations, no one can sway people to abandon the practice,” she said.